Cervantes v. Cox
| Decision Date | 15 September 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 8192.,8192. |
| Citation | 350 F.2d 855 |
| Parties | Manuel CERVANTES, Appellant, v. Harold A. COX, Warden, New Mexico State Penitentiary, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
John W. Carey, Denver, Colo., for appellant.
L. D. Harris, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen. (Boston E. Witt, Atty. Gen., on the brief), for appellee.
Before PICKETT, LEWIS and BREITENSTEIN, Circuit Judges.
This appeal is taken from an order of the District Court for the District of New Mexico denying appellant's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Appellant, a Mexican national, was originally charged with first degree murder and is presently serving a sentence imposed by the New Mexico state court after acceptance of a plea of guilty to second degree murder. He alleges that he was denied several federal constitutional rights in the state court proceedings, each such claim springing from the contention that he could not and did not understandingly communicate with his appointed counsel because of the existence of a language barrier.
Although we have no doubt that under extreme circumstances the inability of an accused to communicate with his counsel may deny to him the right to effective representation and actually result in the entry of a plea without understanding we do not find the case at bar to be of such nature. There is no constitutional right, as such, requiring the assistance of a court-appointed interpreter to supplement the right to counsel. Nor is there a duty to an accused to furnish counsel who can communicate freely with the accused in his native tongue. The existence of a language barrier between counsel and client is merely one circumstance probing the questions of whether the accused has been adequately represented by counsel and has voluntarily and knowingly entered his plea.
Here, the trial court, rejecting the credibility of appellant's present testimony, found as a fact that appellant had a sufficient knowledge of the English language to be completely aware of all of the proceedings in the state court. The finding is amply supported by the transcript of the state arraignment where the following occurred, all in the English language:
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Selalla
...to an interpreter if the foreign-born defendant speaks fluent English and is "completely aware of all the proceedings". Cervantes v. Cox, 350 F.2d 855 (10th Cir.1965). The status of the right becomes less certain, however, where, as in the present case, the defendant has some ability to und......
-
United States v. Desist, 313
...335, 339-340, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963); United States v. Arlen, 252 F.2d 491, 495 (2d Cir. 1958). See also Cervantes v. Cox, 350 F.2d 855 (10th Cir. 1965).33 From Nebbia's point of view, we think the most persuasive approach is the point made at oral argument that if the Governmen......
-
Guerrero v. Harris
...of the charges against him and the effect of a guilty plea, the court may proceed without appointing an interpreter. See Cervantes v. Cox, 350 F.2d 855 (10th Cir. 1965); Gonzalez v. People, 109 F.2d 215 (3d Cir. 1940); People v. Ramos, 26 N.Y.2d 272, 309 N.Y.S.2d 906, 258 N.E.2d 197 (1970).......
-
Hernandez v. Wainwright, 82-1031-CIV.
...on these facts. There is no unqualified constitutional right to counsel able to speak a defendant's native tongue. Cervantes v. Cox, 350 F.2d 855 (10th Cir.1965). Here the Petitioner has not shown any nexus between this language barrier and the requisite deficiency and prejudice for a claim......
-
Justicia Para Todos [1] Ensuring Equal Access to the Courts for Linguistic Minorities
...Interpretation: Theory. Policy and Practice. Gonzales, Vasques & Mikkelson, Carolina Academic Press, 1991, p. 163. [4] Cervantes v. Cox, 350 F.2d 855 (10th Cir. 1965) (observing that there is no per se constitutional right to an interpreter to supplement the right to assistance of counsel).......